We have just seen women cricket’s watershed moment

By Shanmuga SundaramOct 30 was a watershed moment in the history of women’s cricket. Whatever may be the result of the grand finale against South Africa on Super Sunday, Jemimah Rodrigues’s epic knock and Indian women team’s world record-breaking effort to beat world champions Australia has, forever, changed the status of the game in India.Skipper Harmanpreet stored one of her best innings for the match and placed the team on the brink of victory with such an authority and single-minded purpose. In-form Smriti, India’s run machine, laid the foundation from where the chase master Jemimah took over. Promoted in the order, Deepti did her best before the fearless and powerful Richa demolished the kangaroo bowling. Amanjot’s pyrotechnics at the end sealed a memorable win and India forced its way awesomely into the final.

In the entire journey, Jemimah stood firm and went strength to strength, and capitalised on every life she got. Her sublime form was in full demonstration, and the team scripted a magnificent win to the delight of millions of fans.

Super Sunday

The Proteas are a formidable team. Their captain Laura Wolvaardt is fresh from her spectacular 169 runs and Marizanne Kapp took 5 wickets with an all-round display against England in the other semifinal match played at Guwahati.

But the Indian tigresses can handle the pressure, wither any complacency, challenge the opponents and lift the trophy in style. Success changes its formula every now and then, and the women in blue are quick to adapt to the changing match situations. If the fresh thinking of sending Jemima at No 3 in the batting order worked well, promoting Richa as a pinch hitter depending upon the circumstances could also succeed. Innovative thinking and fresh approach match after match keep one thing constant, which is winning.

Hope the lady luck smiles on Harman & Co this Sunday.

IMPORTANCE OF OCT 30

The Navi Mumbai semifinal win was a pleasant moment of glory and grandeur for women’s cricket in India and it will be talked about, discussed over and analysed threadbare till the teams return to the next year’s T20 edition of the World Cup in England and Wales.Women’s Cricket in India has got enormous fillip and impetus now which may propel lakhs of young girls from rural backyards to urban settlements to start playing the game with more intensity and a single big dream of playing for the country.

The way women’s cricket has progressed manifold in recent years and players across national teams playing with such professional standards, the possibility of ‘mixed gender cricket’ could be in the offing – a playing XI comprising of 6 men and 5 women players or vice versa.

Korfball is a fine example for a game with teams having such a combination. Tennis, table-tennis, badminton, and a few are certain sports where mixed gender participation is already there.

The day may not be far when such teams play a World Cup with both genders complimenting each other in the sports field and giving altogether a new dimension and perspective to the game.

COMING OF AGE

Anyway, women’s cricket has come a long way. ‘Reading Mercury’, an 18th Century weekly newspaper in England, reported the first ever women’s cricket match played as early as in 1745, a good 280 years ago; it was between the teams of Bramley and Hambledon played at Bramley in Surrey, England.Almost 180 years after that match, the Women’s Cricket Association (WCA) was formed in England in 1926. Consequently, English women travelled to Down Under in 1934 to play the first Women’s Test Match against their Australian counterparts in Brisbane and won the series 2-0. Soon after, both Australia and New Zealand formed their own women cricket associations.International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) was formed in 1958 to promote the game among the women folks across the globe.

It took another 15 years for India to form its Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) in 1973, followed by West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Parliamentarian Premala Chavan became the first president of WCAI with Mahendra Sharma its secretary.

WOMEN FIRST

The first Women’s Cricket World Cup was held in England in 1973, that was two years before the inaugural edition of Men’s Cricket World Cup in 1975. Hosts England won the Cup and the tournament gave a huge fillip to women’s cricket.

IWCC got merged into the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2005; as a follow up, WCAI was merged with the BCCI in the next year. With T20 tournaments gaining popularity, the Women’s T20 World Cup got kick started in 2009.

Women’s cricket has been included to be part of the games in 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA. A great full circle for women’s cricket has been completed in a century’s time. Shantha Rangaswamy to Diana Edulji to Sandhya Agarwal to Mithali Raj to Jhulan Goswami to Anjum Chopra to Harmanpreet Kaur to Smriti Mandhana to Jemimah Rodrigues, India has produced innumerable stars in women’s cricket over the years. BCCI has to be complimented for its role in promoting women’s cricket with infrastructure, visibility, funding, training and pay parity. With 35,000 spectators at the ground and over 13 crore views in the television, Indian women cricketers turned the tables on the mighty Australia on Thursday. Jemimah emerged as the leader of the pack and records tumbled in the super chase, that too against the seven-time champions.

(Writer is an IAS officer and principal secy with govt of UP)